Monday, April 07, 2008

There's a new Juno juggernaut and her name is Leslie Feist. After winning 3 Junos during the non-broadcast gala on Saturday, Feist completed the sweep last night with two more (Album and Pop Album of the Year), winning all 5 of her nominations. Celine Dion who led all nominees with 6 nominations and Avril Lavigne who had 5 were both shut out. Wintersleep won New Group of the Year, Blue Rodeo won Group of the Year, and Paul Brandt won best country recording. Juno juggernaut Michael Bublé proved to not be such a juggernaut after all, only taking home the Doritos Fan Choice Award. Bublé joked as he accepted the award, "This is for all those people who said I couldn't vote for myself enough times to win. I’d like to thank Doritos for making such tasty treats... Sometimes when I eat them it makes my fingers go orange—but it’s worth it!” I'm just listening to the CBC's Q podcast right now and host Jian Ghomeshi thinks Bublé would make a good host for next year's Junos which are being held here in Vancouver. I agree. He's a natural performer with an irreverent sense of humour. Equal parts artist and entertainer, a fan favourite, and a hometown Vancouver boy, I can't think of a more appropriate host for the Junos '09.

Michael Bublé - This Love [originally by Maroon 5]From his Caught in the Act DVD, Bublé riffs through a goofy sing-a-long version of the Maroon 5 hit, ending with a little operatic flourish.

Feist - Inside + Out (Apostle of Hustle UnMix Live at the BBC) [originally by The Bee Gees]Another version of Feist's cover of The Bee Gee's Love You Inside Out from her album Open Season, a collection of Feist "remixes and collabs".

Feist - Sealion [traditional; popularized by Nina Simone]A traditional folk song that goes by many names: Sea Lion Woman, See Line Woman, Sea-Line Woman... It was first recorded by Christine and Katherine Shipp in 1939 for the Library of Congress and is available on a CD called A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings. The liner notes to that even offers some more variations: See [the] Lyin' Woman or C-Line Woman. Nina Simone recorded her version See Line Woman for the 1964 release Broadway-Blues-Ballads. At last night's show, Feist performed a show-stopping version of Sealion from her now Juno-winning album The Reminder.

Remember how I mentioned that there was a controversy about who was on the Best Album list that shouldn't have been? Quick recap: Anne Murray was left off the nomination, but after recalculating the figures for Best Album (one of several categories where nominations are based on sales) they added her to the ballot, so now there was an extra nominee. Up against two Celine Dion records, Michael Bublé, Avril Lavigne, and now Anne Murray, I sort of suspected that it may be indeed Feist who was the odd one out. I really couldn't imagine her outselling the other nominees, each of whom have huge demographics driving their sales. Please forgive the broad generalizations, but Avril has her teen/pop crowd; Celine has Québec and Oprah; Anne Murray skews to an older, nostalgic crowd with a gauntlet of superstar guests; and Bublé kinda appeals to everyone. What about Feist? Indie types and people who liked that iPod commercial? Weeks ago Anne Murray told the Canadian Press, "The person who is not supposed to be in there could conceivably win..." And I don't mean this as a slight against Feist, but rather the methodology behind the nominations. For example, a couple years ago you know who was up for Album of the Year? Nickelback, Bublé, a Diana Krall Christmas album, and TWO Canadian Idol contestants. That about sums it up right there. I just found out that Anne Murray flub wasn't the only Juno "logistical error" this year. After the nominations were announced, they also added Jill Barber to the New Artist list and rapper Classified was all out replaced by JDiggz because his album was already nominated last year. Whoops!

McNutt blogs about Feist's "mistaken victory" here and notes that this has happened before, not too long ago...

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